03 October 2004	Sunday	17 Shaban 1425

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 A US judge has dismissed capital murder charges against sniper John Allen Mohammad, ruling that the convict s right to a speedy trial had been violated.

Circuit Judge M. Langhorne Keith of the Fairfax County, Virginia, pointed out that under state laws criminal defendants are entitled to a trial within five months of their arrest.

Mohammad and his accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo are accused of killing 10 people and wounding three others during a series of sniper shootings in the Washington region in October 2002. The dismissal verdict, delivered Friday afternoon, cannot be appealed. Virginia Gov. Mark Warner can intervene, but he said through a spokesman that he will wait until Judge Keith reviews the motion.

The ruling, however, has no effect on Mohammad s death sentence in an earlier case in Prince William County. But Friday's verdict is seen as a severe blow to the government s plan to secure a series of convictions and death sentences for Mohammad as a safety net in case his appeal is successful.

Muhammad will face at least one other prosecution while his attorneys appeal the death sentence he received in March from a Prince William County court near Washington.

He was found guilty in the fatal Oct. 9, 2002, shooting of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, at a Manassas gas station near Washington.